MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. -- Swimming a mile for most may be a large goal to accomplish. Swimming three even more so, but swimming more than six miles in four hours may seem impossible. It wasn’t for one lifeguard aboard the air station and he did it for a day every Marine knows.
The Marine Corps celebrates 238 years of existence this year and Dustin Kropinack, Marine Corps Air Station New River AS-4400 fitness center life guard, swam a lap for each one of those years Oct. 10, at the fitness center pool.
The birthday swim has been going on for around five years as a fitness challenge to promote swimming,” said Torey Michels, Marine Corps Air Station New River AS-4400 fitness center assistance aquatics director. “And one day we were all talking in the office and he said that he could swim it in a day.”
Kropinack did as he said he would and completed all 238 laps the first day of the Marine Corps Birthday Swim event.
“I swam the 238 laps because people have said they were going to do it in one day before, but I’ve heard that no one has ever done it,” said Kropinack. “I swam in three sessions. In my first session, I swam 38 laps in 30 minutes; then I swam another 10 laps. After work I swam the remaining 190 laps.”
Kropinack is the first recorded person to complete the birthday swim within the time span of one day and elaborated on the physical and mental challenges of swimming it in a short amount of time.
“When I swam my last session, I zoned out and just kept thinking, ‘every lap counts,’” said Kropincak. “When I was halfway through, I got a little disheartened because I realized I had 90 laps left to go, but I just thought, ‘keep on swimming.’”
For more information regarding the birthday swim, contact the fitness center at 910-449-4307.